Police asks for blueprint of ill-fated building

Mumbai: The Parksite police has asked for the blueprint and plan of Ghatkopar’s Siddhi Saidarshan building from the registrar of cooperative housing societies and the Briha-nmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Seventeen persons, including two babies, died in the crash.

The police is also planning to re-record the statements of all the residents of the ill-fated building as the official said they were in shock and with the passage of time, they would have more to share.

Officials are yet to get clarity on what accused Sunil Shitap was planning to make on the ground floor, and hence officials have recorded statement of a woman doctor who used to run Shitap’s nursing home till a month ago, when she was asked to leave ahead of the renovation.

The police suspect that Shitap might have informed the doctor about why he wanted to shut down the nursing home.

The breaking of load-bearing pillars in the ground-floor nursing home could have led to the crash, according to the FIR registered by the police in the case.

The police is also trying to track down the labourers and contractors who were working at the site, who will be questioned with the help of the building’s plan.

“We are yet to get the exact details of the case that can come from the labourers. We want to question them based on the blueprint to identify the exact pillar that was damaged, which brought down the structure,” said a police officer.

The officials are yet to track down architect Ranjit Agale who was supervising the renovation work and was responsible for securing requisite permissions. Agale is on the run and police teams have been formed to search him and the contractors.

 A team of 18 personnel of the municipal corporation has also been formed to scan through the debris and find valuables or belongings.

“The team is filtering the debris that has been collected at Maniklal ground and whatever has been found has been collected with the police. We are keeping the belongings in our custody,” said Sachin Patil, deputy commissioner of police, zone VII.